Quote: Andrew Wyeth in interview: on the American quality

You see, I just give no quarter to contemporary foreign art. When I say that America’s absolutely it, people always say, “But Cezanne, Picasso, Braque.” They’re saying, “Yes, but we’re children over here in painting.” I’m not talking about subject matter but a very American quality-- an indigenous thing you’re born with. I think Franz Kline had it very strongly, even though he’s Abstract. It’s the quality of the early weather vanes, the hinges on the doors. It’s very hard to pinpoint. The Patriot-- there's a certain awkward, primitive quality in that portrait I feel only could have been done by an American. It’s sort of dry, for one thing. Robert Frost’s best poetry has a dry quality.